A health website is a health communication channel, as well as a corporate image to online customers. Reliable and popular health websites can provide customers with general healthcare information, and further reinforce hospital-customer relationships. This study examines the effect of three social psychological factors (perceived benefit, perceived interactivity, and perceived trust) on health website outcomes (web usage, web satisfaction, and web loyalty). Structural equation modeling reveals that these three social psychological factors determine web usage, which in turn influences web satisfaction and loyalty. Besides, two social psychological factors (perceived benefit, and perceived interactivity) have significant effects on web usage. Meanwhile, web usage and web satisfaction are both significant predictors of web loyalty. Further investigation reveals that social psychological factors have both direct and indirect influences on web outcomes. This study emphasizes the importance of social psychological factors in the progress towards success of health websites. These findings provide important implications for managers and developers of health websites, indicating that patients are not only web users with trust and information needs, but also customers with service and interaction needs.
